Spreading to erect herb or subshrub to 50 cm high, dioecious, much-branched near base; branches rigid, striate, densely hairy to glabrous. Leaves sessile, linear to linear-lanceolate, mostly 5–15 mm long and 1–3 mm wide, acute and often uncinate, surfaces scabrous to hairy, margins strongly recurved. Inflorescences axillary 3–5-flowered hemispherical heads, single or paired; peduncles 0–1 mm long, deflexed, shorter than subtending leaves. Flowers unisexual; calyx-lobes linear-triangular, 0.5–1 mm long, glabrous or hairy; corolla 0.5–1.5 mm long. Capsules dehiscing by an oblique abscission leaving a star-shaped cavity when seeds shed; seeds compressed-ovoid, 1.5–3 mm long, outer surface transversely rugose, inner surface with 2 smooth longitudinal ridges, rugose. Flowers Aug.–Nov.
LoM, MuM, Wim, GleP, RobP. Also SA, NSW. In Victoria confined to the north-west, often under mallee or in dune heathlands.
Source:
Jeanes, J.A. (1999). Rubiaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 4, Cornaceae to Asteraceae, pp. 616–642. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
